TELEGRAM TO L. D. TROTSKY

Published:First published in part inGrazhdanskaya voina. 1918–1921, Vol. III.

      Published in full in 1942 inLenin Miscellany XXXIV.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1975,

      Moscow,Volume 44,

      page181a.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Tobe coded3. I. 1919

TrotskyVoronezhor present whereabouts

Amvery uneasy about whether you are not giving too
much attention to the Ukraine to the detriment of the
general strategic task, on which Vatsetis insists and which
consists in a speedy, determined and general offensive
against Krasnov. I am very much afraid that we are being
late with this and that the recent successes of the
Krasnovites near Tsaritsyn will again lead to the postponement
of our offensive and to our missing the right moment. The
initiative for serious operations is escaping from us, both
at Astrakhan and on the Caspian Sea, as well as at
Tsaritsyn and in the east. Vatsetis is for a speedy general
offensive against Krasnov, but Vatsetis, apparently, is not
able to cope with red tape and the separatism of the
Ukrainians and other regionalists. Should you not concentrate
wholly on hastening and carrying through a general
offensive against Krasnov?